Fears of recession not affecting local consumer-driven projects

The U.S. economy could be on its way to a recession. At least, this is what The New York Times suggests in an article that is about much more than homeowners losing equity, as its headline purports. The article begins with an anecdote to illustrate the ways in which many Americans are losing equity by borrowing without hesitation in a real estate market in which their house values are decreasing, not increasing. From there, the article outlines this basic problem, but it quickly extrapolates into many other dangers. It is a chain of cause and effect that could take us into a recession. By the end of the article, the focus is on consumer spending and the upcoming holiday season. The connections are made a little too quickly, I think, and the article could have focused more closely on the impact of losing equity for the homeowners' themselves before broadening the scope to the economy at large.

A look at The Boston Globe reveals more recession worries, but the Globe article pins the cause to rising oil prices. This article is more straightforward in getting at its point; it acknowledges fears of a recession right from the start in the sub-headline. The rest of the article uses a variety of evidence presented by economists and energy officials to back up its claims. This is much more convincing than the argument presented on why loss of home equity could spur a recession. The steps are clearly outlined from the start, and the article sticks to one topic. Of course, it still doesn't make me any happier to know that gas prices are still rising and our economy still plummeting.

More bad news in the local Canton Citizen. I've been following the ping-pong-like efforts of Westwood to move forward with its planned retail and housing development Westwood Station as Canton residents try at every stage to halt it for fears of the havoc it will wreak in the form of traffic nightmares. Apparently, the developers do not have the Times' fear of decreased consumer spending. The article begins with an unbiased report of the recent success Westwood had in obtaining approval from the Secretary of Environmental Affairs. This left me confused: the Citizen is supposed to be on Canton's side, and it has been so far. Shortly thereafter, though, the article returned its focus to the concerns of its readers by noting that this is another instance in which Governor Deval Patrick has let Canton down and by informing readers how to take action. The article serves its purpose well by reporting the latest developments and keeping citizens informed of issues that concern them and ways in which they can deal with those issues.